The NCT published a letter from the Leucadia Cares folks in response to Oceanside political lobbyist Jack Orr's "Red Shirts" column. They pretty much bitch slap him.
link
link to Orr's commentary
The letters to the editor section of the NCT is great because it's filled with people taking sniper shots at each other and it takes days if not weeks for the drama to unfold.
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Ms. Beak Nails It
My all time favorite columnist in San Diego, the mysterious Ms. Beak, calls out Ecke and the city council. Classic.
Encinitas calls itself the “Flower Capital of the World,” which confuses many visitors. After all, even the most brain-dead ’Zonie knows the famous flower fields are actually in Carlsbad. The only overt sign of flowers in Encinitas are the buckets of plastic-wrapped roses for sale in the local 7-Eleven.
Encinitas proclaims itself the “Flower Capital of World” primarily due its status as the home to the Paul Ecke Ranch, the company that almost single-handedly turned poinsettias into an annoying Christmas tradition.
More than 70 percent of the poinsettias grown in North America and more than 50 percent of the poinsettias sold worldwide originate at the Ecke Ranch, according to the company. So maybe Flower Capital of the World is a bit of reach, but at the very least the city could legitimately call itself the Poinsettia Capital of the World.
But there is a wee bit of a problem. The Eckes say they can no longer afford to compete in the cutthroat flower biz unless they upgrade their facilities and “modernize” their greenhouses. To raise money, they want the city to allow them to build more than 200 houses on some of their land zoned for agriculture.
Cutting through the fertilizer, the Eckes are, in fact, simply pointing out that growing condos in Encinitas is far more profitable than growing flowers.
The Eckes’ operation is based on choice land on the hillside just east of I-5, the type of location that makes for developer wet dreams. When the family first moved to the area in 1923, Encinitas was just another dot on the map, a cool place to surf and camp on the beach. There was no interstate, never mind a Taco Bell.
Needless to say, that was long ago, as anyone who has driven Encinitas Boulevard on a Friday night can attest. The Ecke property is now smack dab in the middle of one of the hottest real-estate markets south of Irvine, a thriving metropolis of tract homes, fast food chains, Super Target stores and swell car washes.
To a very large degree, the Eckes have already cashed in on the rush to pave Encinitas. In the mid-’90s they sold off 850 acres of prime hillside land that was carved into a sea of stucco, shopping centers and various city-approved recreational facilities. At the time, they whined about “saving the ranch,” arguing that unless they could plant more townhomes, the flower business might have to move to, say, Fallbrook. Apparently the millions they earned off that deal wasn’t enough, and now the Eckes are once again tossing out the sob story.
In essence, they’re saying that developing the land is the only way to raise capital to save the poinsettia business. They can’t get a bank loan. They can’t run up the old credit card. They absolutely must build more than 200 houses on one of the last greenbelts left in the area, or the Ecke Ranch will go bye-bye.
Since the Ecke Ranch is a private company and doesn’t release any details, the city will have to take the Eckes’ word that times are real tough in the poinsettia game, despite the family’s dominance of the industry.
Much like the Chargers and Padres, the Eckes say they are committed to staying in town—even while they’re threatening to leave if they don’t get their way. They also play the “jobs card,” noting as often as possible that the ranch employs more than 300 employees “during peak seasons,” making it “one of the largest private employers in north San Diego County.”
The Eckes don’t explain how many people they employ outside “peak seasons,” nor how many of those employees are “poinsettia waterers.” But even if the plans are approved, the Eckes’ poinsettia operation will dwindle to a skimpy 20 acres, and it certainly won’t create new jobs or grow the all-mighty tax base.
In other words, the Eckes’ core business these days is really land development. No matter how they spin it, their motivation to “raise capital” is the same as every other developer who would like to “raise capital” by turning farmland into a row of duplexes. The Eckes are simply using the flower business as a front, asking for special favors in order to subsidize a less profitable aspect of their business. It’s the same as Alex Spanos asking for a variance to build apartments on city controlled open space simply because the Chargers suck.
Any other landowner in Encinitas would have to get on all fours and squeal like a pig to get prime land rezoned for another grove of stucco palaces. After all, city leaders hold all the cards in these little poker tourneys.
The smart move would be for the city to tell the Eckes, “Eat me.” Save the land. Make ’em sweat. If the Eckes really need the big payday, they’ll come back with a better plan, one that might actually help the city’s quality of life.
Instead, the Encinitas city leaders are negotiating like crack ’hos desperate for a fix. They’re fast-tracking the project, rubber-stamping every new development proposal from the Eckes, pursuing the same shrewd community planning strategy that turned the El Camino Real corridor into a clogged land of Long John Silver franchises.
If they keep it up, no one will call it the “Flower Capital of the World” anymore, even if the Eckes keep their operation alive. Heck, they won’t even call it Encinitas. It will be known simply as “South Tustin.”
Encinitas calls itself the “Flower Capital of the World,” which confuses many visitors. After all, even the most brain-dead ’Zonie knows the famous flower fields are actually in Carlsbad. The only overt sign of flowers in Encinitas are the buckets of plastic-wrapped roses for sale in the local 7-Eleven.
Encinitas proclaims itself the “Flower Capital of World” primarily due its status as the home to the Paul Ecke Ranch, the company that almost single-handedly turned poinsettias into an annoying Christmas tradition.
More than 70 percent of the poinsettias grown in North America and more than 50 percent of the poinsettias sold worldwide originate at the Ecke Ranch, according to the company. So maybe Flower Capital of the World is a bit of reach, but at the very least the city could legitimately call itself the Poinsettia Capital of the World.
But there is a wee bit of a problem. The Eckes say they can no longer afford to compete in the cutthroat flower biz unless they upgrade their facilities and “modernize” their greenhouses. To raise money, they want the city to allow them to build more than 200 houses on some of their land zoned for agriculture.
Cutting through the fertilizer, the Eckes are, in fact, simply pointing out that growing condos in Encinitas is far more profitable than growing flowers.
The Eckes’ operation is based on choice land on the hillside just east of I-5, the type of location that makes for developer wet dreams. When the family first moved to the area in 1923, Encinitas was just another dot on the map, a cool place to surf and camp on the beach. There was no interstate, never mind a Taco Bell.
Needless to say, that was long ago, as anyone who has driven Encinitas Boulevard on a Friday night can attest. The Ecke property is now smack dab in the middle of one of the hottest real-estate markets south of Irvine, a thriving metropolis of tract homes, fast food chains, Super Target stores and swell car washes.
To a very large degree, the Eckes have already cashed in on the rush to pave Encinitas. In the mid-’90s they sold off 850 acres of prime hillside land that was carved into a sea of stucco, shopping centers and various city-approved recreational facilities. At the time, they whined about “saving the ranch,” arguing that unless they could plant more townhomes, the flower business might have to move to, say, Fallbrook. Apparently the millions they earned off that deal wasn’t enough, and now the Eckes are once again tossing out the sob story.
In essence, they’re saying that developing the land is the only way to raise capital to save the poinsettia business. They can’t get a bank loan. They can’t run up the old credit card. They absolutely must build more than 200 houses on one of the last greenbelts left in the area, or the Ecke Ranch will go bye-bye.
Since the Ecke Ranch is a private company and doesn’t release any details, the city will have to take the Eckes’ word that times are real tough in the poinsettia game, despite the family’s dominance of the industry.
Much like the Chargers and Padres, the Eckes say they are committed to staying in town—even while they’re threatening to leave if they don’t get their way. They also play the “jobs card,” noting as often as possible that the ranch employs more than 300 employees “during peak seasons,” making it “one of the largest private employers in north San Diego County.”
The Eckes don’t explain how many people they employ outside “peak seasons,” nor how many of those employees are “poinsettia waterers.” But even if the plans are approved, the Eckes’ poinsettia operation will dwindle to a skimpy 20 acres, and it certainly won’t create new jobs or grow the all-mighty tax base.
In other words, the Eckes’ core business these days is really land development. No matter how they spin it, their motivation to “raise capital” is the same as every other developer who would like to “raise capital” by turning farmland into a row of duplexes. The Eckes are simply using the flower business as a front, asking for special favors in order to subsidize a less profitable aspect of their business. It’s the same as Alex Spanos asking for a variance to build apartments on city controlled open space simply because the Chargers suck.
Any other landowner in Encinitas would have to get on all fours and squeal like a pig to get prime land rezoned for another grove of stucco palaces. After all, city leaders hold all the cards in these little poker tourneys.
The smart move would be for the city to tell the Eckes, “Eat me.” Save the land. Make ’em sweat. If the Eckes really need the big payday, they’ll come back with a better plan, one that might actually help the city’s quality of life.
Instead, the Encinitas city leaders are negotiating like crack ’hos desperate for a fix. They’re fast-tracking the project, rubber-stamping every new development proposal from the Eckes, pursuing the same shrewd community planning strategy that turned the El Camino Real corridor into a clogged land of Long John Silver franchises.
If they keep it up, no one will call it the “Flower Capital of the World” anymore, even if the Eckes keep their operation alive. Heck, they won’t even call it Encinitas. It will be known simply as “South Tustin.”
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
The Short Term Rental Drama
The short term rental ban is in the news again NCT link
I personally have no problem with people renting out beach houses. There were complaints about noise and partying, mostly from the Sea Bluff condos (which is ironic because when I was in high school some of the most gnarly parties I had ever seen where held there. "The cops can't get through the gate." explained some coked out knucklehead in a fluro pink t-shirt with matching Oakley blade sunglasses).
The motels and hotels may complain but if you are a nice proper Midwest family where would you rather stay, in a cool 4 bedroom beach house right on Neptune or cram the whole family in one room of one of our ratty motels?
An argument against the rental ban is that it denies people access to the beach. I guess I follow that flimsy logic, sort of.
You would think an anti-social guy like me would support the ban but I've never had it out for tourist. I have nothing against tourist. In fact thank gawd for all those tourist bringing out their cute daughters back in the day (the local girls would have nothing to do with me).
Also, tourist eat out a lot thus supporting the local restaraunts that we all love. This is a good thing.
Somebody brought up the new hotel going in. Oh gee, you mean the $400 a night hotel?
I don't see a lot of families going for that.
I understand that the city council wants to avoid us becoming a full on rental/transient type of beach town but I just don't see that happening.
So here is how it breaks down as I see it:
Couples book hotel rooms.
Families get beach houses.
So I guess we can conclude that the Encinitas city council hates the American family. You know who else hates the American family? OSAMA BIN LADEN, that's who!
I support banning things.
I personally have no problem with people renting out beach houses. There were complaints about noise and partying, mostly from the Sea Bluff condos (which is ironic because when I was in high school some of the most gnarly parties I had ever seen where held there. "The cops can't get through the gate." explained some coked out knucklehead in a fluro pink t-shirt with matching Oakley blade sunglasses).
The motels and hotels may complain but if you are a nice proper Midwest family where would you rather stay, in a cool 4 bedroom beach house right on Neptune or cram the whole family in one room of one of our ratty motels?
An argument against the rental ban is that it denies people access to the beach. I guess I follow that flimsy logic, sort of.
You would think an anti-social guy like me would support the ban but I've never had it out for tourist. I have nothing against tourist. In fact thank gawd for all those tourist bringing out their cute daughters back in the day (the local girls would have nothing to do with me).
Also, tourist eat out a lot thus supporting the local restaraunts that we all love. This is a good thing.
Somebody brought up the new hotel going in. Oh gee, you mean the $400 a night hotel?
I don't see a lot of families going for that.
I understand that the city council wants to avoid us becoming a full on rental/transient type of beach town but I just don't see that happening.
So here is how it breaks down as I see it:
Couples book hotel rooms.
Families get beach houses.
So I guess we can conclude that the Encinitas city council hates the American family. You know who else hates the American family? OSAMA BIN LADEN, that's who!
I support banning things.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
City Council Unearths Magical Zoning Amulet
After years spent poring over mysterious and arcane plat sheets and deciphering long-forgotten building codes, the Encinitas city council unearthed the mysterious City Zoning Amulet Friday.
"Behold!" Jerome Stocks shouted, holding aloft the solid-gold amulet, which is emblazoned with the Ever-Evaluating Eye of Surr-Vey, Lord Of Demarcation, He Who Measures And Assesses. "With this sigil, the power of zoning comes. Through me, the power of zoning flows! All will behold my power, and I shall bow to no man when designating matter-of-right developments for major retail and office spaces to a maximum lot occupancy of 75 percent for residential use!"
Christy Guerin took her turn and held the glowing amulet aloft and transmuted a neighborhood of low-income apartments into a semi-wooded, single-family, residential district with an adjoining riverside park.
Though the amulet had long been dismissed as urban legend, a mythical ideal of zoning perfection handed down from city planner to city planner, the Encinitas city council became convinced that not only was it real, but that it had been used to lay out the cities of Ur, Atlantis, and Inver Grove Heights, MN.
apologies the the onion.com
Monday, October 03, 2005
Choo Choo!
I live close to the tracks, so close in fact that I if I am watching a movie on DVD that I have to pause it when the train blows it's horn. There is a lot of fuss these days about train noise and "quiet zones".
NCT link
As usual everyone is over thinking the problem.
The problem really isn't the horn, it's the fact the engineers lean on the damn thing for a half mile when a couple of short toots would suffice.
Remember a couple of years ago when Amtrak had that new euro train running for a short time? That train had a nice horn, a classic whoooo whooooooo.
The current trains all have The World is Ending Banshee Screams of Death horns that sound horrifying.
The Coaster trains seem to be less offensive than the Amtrak. I figure that a ex-wife of a Amtrak engineer lives nearby.
Our fearless councilman Jerome Stocks is on the NCTD board. So Jerome, at the next meeting throw it out there that the engineers just need to do the classic "choo choo" and not the status quo "BLAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR BLAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR!!!!!!"
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Illegal Alien Labor & Ecke Ranch
Ecke Ranch has always been a mecca for illegal aliens. When I was a little kid I remember riding my dirt bike on the trails of what is now the shopping center and seeing the large migrant worker camp.
I wonder how much money the Eckes have saved in tax free low cost labor over the decades?
I wonder how many of those illegal aliens ever received free medical care from Scripps at the taxpayer's expense?
I wonder how many of those illegal aliens committed petty to serious crimes against the legal citizens?
Is that how the Eckes became millionaires? By employing a cash under the table labor force?
We know one thing for sure, none of those workers were "coddled".
Yup, the Eckes are true local hero's
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Baby Steps Towards Improving Leucadia
Now that total redevelopment is dead a lot of long overdue improvements are finally being done. There are a lot of conspiracy theories about work getting put on hold over the years in order to make Leucadia seem "blighted".
The little Leucadia Wino Park has new sod and other improvements and the street going up to the Beacon's beach parking lot has been repaved. I'm happy about that.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Jack Orr Lives In Oceanside, Chimes in about Leucadia
Jack Orr gives some to the Sheridan development opposition in a letter to the NCT.
NCT link
Isn't Jack Orr the campaign manager for Jerome Stocks new run at State Assembly?
Here is a photo of Andrew. The City gave Ecke-Meyer a couple
feet of the street so that they could get more building space and maybe more houses.
They approved this by calling it "street improvements"
It double sucks because the Barratt/Meyer development will not have
street parking (so that streets can be more narrow and Barratt can
get more buildable space), and thus all the overload parking will
be out on Andrew in front of the neighbor's houses. What strike is that Mr. Orr?
NCT link
Isn't Jack Orr the campaign manager for Jerome Stocks new run at State Assembly?
Here is a photo of Andrew. The City gave Ecke-Meyer a couple
feet of the street so that they could get more building space and maybe more houses.
They approved this by calling it "street improvements"
It double sucks because the Barratt/Meyer development will not have
street parking (so that streets can be more narrow and Barratt can
get more buildable space), and thus all the overload parking will
be out on Andrew in front of the neighbor's houses. What strike is that Mr. Orr?
Saturday, September 17, 2005
Ecke Re-Education Camps Begin
Today is the first in a series of tours of Ecke Ranch. Right now 100 of our fellow citizens are learning about the most important thing in the Encinitas microverse, the holy poinsettia.
Paul Ecke III?
You will vote yes on prop. A
Don't be suprised if later today you see someone running through the woody show screaming this.
Paul Ecke III?
You will vote yes on prop. A
Don't be suprised if later today you see someone running through the woody show screaming this.
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Downtown Encinitas Rakes In 29 Meeellion Bucks!
DEMA link
The most important part of the press release is this:
Encinitas is unique in the fact that it is one of the few cities in San Diego County without a redevelopment agency. Typically, cities rely on redevelopment agencies and economic development agencies in many case both, to "redevelop" older section of their cities that are for whatever reason less viable than before, and suffering through "consumer neglect" resulting in deteriorating sales tax and other problems requiring increased city services.
18 years ago, Encinitas opted for a different way, it signed up for a pilot program through the State of California and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to be a designated Mainstreet city. Mainstreet is a strategy developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that seeks to use preservation and incremental improvements focused on the inherent strengths of a district and its stakeholders, to promote a "restoration" of the vitality of the district.
If only poor "blighted" Leucadia had been so lucky.
The most important part of the press release is this:
Encinitas is unique in the fact that it is one of the few cities in San Diego County without a redevelopment agency. Typically, cities rely on redevelopment agencies and economic development agencies in many case both, to "redevelop" older section of their cities that are for whatever reason less viable than before, and suffering through "consumer neglect" resulting in deteriorating sales tax and other problems requiring increased city services.
18 years ago, Encinitas opted for a different way, it signed up for a pilot program through the State of California and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to be a designated Mainstreet city. Mainstreet is a strategy developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation that seeks to use preservation and incremental improvements focused on the inherent strengths of a district and its stakeholders, to promote a "restoration" of the vitality of the district.
If only poor "blighted" Leucadia had been so lucky.
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Eminent Domain in Olivenhain!
NCT story by Adam Kaye Link
Mr. and Mrs. Garner of Olivenhain are going to lose a chunk of their personal private property for a road widening.
Expanding roads and infrastructure is the "good" kind of eminent domain right?
But first we must think, why does this road need to be widened?
It is so the new residents of the sprawling insta-town of San Elijo Hills can better access Target and Barnes&Noble and Stater Bros. all part of the Ecke Ranch shopping center.
This is an example of backdoor loss of property to another private party. Technically the city is taking your land, but it is the for the benefit of another private party. This is exactly what happened to the people who lived on Leucadia Blvd. They lost their homes for the benefit of the same Ecke shopping center.
Remember at the city council meeting about Jerome Stocks' then proposed anti-eminent domain ordinance that a lady lawyer got up and spoke about the need for eminent domain in Olivenhain specifically? Coincidence?
Mr. and Mrs. Garner of Olivenhain are going to lose a chunk of their personal private property for a road widening.
Expanding roads and infrastructure is the "good" kind of eminent domain right?
But first we must think, why does this road need to be widened?
It is so the new residents of the sprawling insta-town of San Elijo Hills can better access Target and Barnes&Noble and Stater Bros. all part of the Ecke Ranch shopping center.
This is an example of backdoor loss of property to another private party. Technically the city is taking your land, but it is the for the benefit of another private party. This is exactly what happened to the people who lived on Leucadia Blvd. They lost their homes for the benefit of the same Ecke shopping center.
Remember at the city council meeting about Jerome Stocks' then proposed anti-eminent domain ordinance that a lady lawyer got up and spoke about the need for eminent domain in Olivenhain specifically? Coincidence?
Saturday, September 10, 2005
Stinky West Nile Infested Lagoon Will Host 4 or More Hotels
Angela Lau Union Tribune Link
The Batiquitos Lagoon already host the famous La Costa Resort and Spa and the Four Seasons in the Aviara, soon it will have the big hotel development on the Carlsbad side (save Ponto) and Leucadia will have two hotel/condo developments on the Encinitas side.
That is a lot of high end money to be next to a stinky estuary with hordes of mosquitoes.
Morgan Mallory has a quote in the UT story, "They're going to improve that intersection architecturally, aesthetically," said Morgan Mallory, a board member for Leucadia 101 Mainstreet Association, a downtown improvement and historic preservation organization. "Growth is inevitable. Having attractive growth is good.
The existing hotels are pretty lame architecture wise, does anyone know what the new hotels are going to look like? We don't need anymore faux Spanish conquistador style stuff. Doesn't Morgan Mallory walk around town in a beret? Can we trust him when he says the hotels will be cool?
Will the new multi-million dollar Leucadia hotels be hip hotels with swanky lounges like the W Hotel or The Omni?
Or will they be lame and ugly like the crusty La Costa Resort and Spa?
If anyone from the KSL Corp. reads this please put in a cool jazz lounge or something. Leucadia needs a hip hang out. Gawd bless The Leucadian and The Boardroom but sometimes the wife and I want to dress up a bit and go hear some Coltrane or some avant garde turntablist instead of shooting pool with the local meth heads and listening to Van Halen on the juke.
The Batiquitos Lagoon already host the famous La Costa Resort and Spa and the Four Seasons in the Aviara, soon it will have the big hotel development on the Carlsbad side (save Ponto) and Leucadia will have two hotel/condo developments on the Encinitas side.
That is a lot of high end money to be next to a stinky estuary with hordes of mosquitoes.
Morgan Mallory has a quote in the UT story, "They're going to improve that intersection architecturally, aesthetically," said Morgan Mallory, a board member for Leucadia 101 Mainstreet Association, a downtown improvement and historic preservation organization. "Growth is inevitable. Having attractive growth is good.
The existing hotels are pretty lame architecture wise, does anyone know what the new hotels are going to look like? We don't need anymore faux Spanish conquistador style stuff. Doesn't Morgan Mallory walk around town in a beret? Can we trust him when he says the hotels will be cool?
Will the new multi-million dollar Leucadia hotels be hip hotels with swanky lounges like the W Hotel or The Omni?
Or will they be lame and ugly like the crusty La Costa Resort and Spa?
If anyone from the KSL Corp. reads this please put in a cool jazz lounge or something. Leucadia needs a hip hang out. Gawd bless The Leucadian and The Boardroom but sometimes the wife and I want to dress up a bit and go hear some Coltrane or some avant garde turntablist instead of shooting pool with the local meth heads and listening to Van Halen on the juke.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Another Super Funny Letter from M. Pattinson
The best thing about reading the newspaper is looking for the latest wacky column from my now favorite super rockstar developer Michael D. Pattinson (president of home builder Barratt American and former president of the California Building Industry Association).
NCT link
His latest rant is a good one, a real knee slapper. He is all hot and bothered that developers are not allowed to dump dirt in rivers. Then he heard that there wasn't enough sand at the beach, so he figures that there is no sand at the beach because no dirt is washing out from the rivers onto said beach. The rivers are dirtless, thus the beach is sandless.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
This is a common belief, especially by yuppie golfers who only go to the beach on Labor Day.
River sand and dirt is not the same stuff we have on our beaches. A trip to the beach revels this simple if not totally obvious truth.
Our beach sand is pushed up from the deep blue sea by south swells in the spring, summer and fall. There is vast amounts of sand on the bottom offshore. Millions of years worth of the stuff.
The sand gets stripped off our beaches in the winter, usually during big storms with big waves. We lost almost all our beautiful sand after the El Nino winter of '83. It was after this time that most of the cliff trouble started.
Right now we have lovely sandy beaches. If you go down the stairs at Grandview beach at the north end of Leucadia and walk a few steps south you will see some sandstone rocks poking up. These seemingly small rocks are actually huge boulders that a few years ago loomed up a good 8-10 feet. They serve as a good eyeball measure of how much sand we have.
We still don't have as much as we had in the 70's when the beaches were HUGE. But we've come along way and the major dredging project from 5 years ago really helped (although we were experiencing a decent natural recovery at the time).
Even though it rained a ton this last winter the waves were not very big so we did not lose much sand. It was a woeful summer for surf but this fall is looking promising. We may end up with quite a bit of even more sand before the winter storms arrive.
As posted before, the newest multi-million dollar sand replenishment project is somewhat of a head scratcher because we do have a lot of sand now. But by 2008 things could change.
The rivers Pattinson wants to fill with dirt did wash out into the ocean this last winter. This is really good for the quality of the waves. The rivermouth "blows out" and forms a big sandbar and the waves peel along it. The bad part is that the water quality of the runoff is so bad that it is risky to surf these spots.
This north county rivermouth made the May '05 cover of Surfing magazine. I surfed this spot a lot this winter. It looks pretty but the pesticides runoff was so bad that it burned my eyes.
Fill dirt seems to be a real problem for Pattinson considering the drama on Sheridan.
Pattinson is reaching for another long stretch of logic on this river dirt/sand deal. Sorry buddy, nice try though. And thanks for laughs. If you are finding yourself with too much dirt why don't you build some kids some baseball fields or something?
Psychologists would call Pattinson's latest column "whiny little girl syndrome".
*I did a search on "pattinson" on the North County Times website and found his previous letters plus rebuttal letters from the public. It's a riot.
link
NCT link
His latest rant is a good one, a real knee slapper. He is all hot and bothered that developers are not allowed to dump dirt in rivers. Then he heard that there wasn't enough sand at the beach, so he figures that there is no sand at the beach because no dirt is washing out from the rivers onto said beach. The rivers are dirtless, thus the beach is sandless.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
This is a common belief, especially by yuppie golfers who only go to the beach on Labor Day.
River sand and dirt is not the same stuff we have on our beaches. A trip to the beach revels this simple if not totally obvious truth.
Our beach sand is pushed up from the deep blue sea by south swells in the spring, summer and fall. There is vast amounts of sand on the bottom offshore. Millions of years worth of the stuff.
The sand gets stripped off our beaches in the winter, usually during big storms with big waves. We lost almost all our beautiful sand after the El Nino winter of '83. It was after this time that most of the cliff trouble started.
Right now we have lovely sandy beaches. If you go down the stairs at Grandview beach at the north end of Leucadia and walk a few steps south you will see some sandstone rocks poking up. These seemingly small rocks are actually huge boulders that a few years ago loomed up a good 8-10 feet. They serve as a good eyeball measure of how much sand we have.
We still don't have as much as we had in the 70's when the beaches were HUGE. But we've come along way and the major dredging project from 5 years ago really helped (although we were experiencing a decent natural recovery at the time).
Even though it rained a ton this last winter the waves were not very big so we did not lose much sand. It was a woeful summer for surf but this fall is looking promising. We may end up with quite a bit of even more sand before the winter storms arrive.
As posted before, the newest multi-million dollar sand replenishment project is somewhat of a head scratcher because we do have a lot of sand now. But by 2008 things could change.
The rivers Pattinson wants to fill with dirt did wash out into the ocean this last winter. This is really good for the quality of the waves. The rivermouth "blows out" and forms a big sandbar and the waves peel along it. The bad part is that the water quality of the runoff is so bad that it is risky to surf these spots.
This north county rivermouth made the May '05 cover of Surfing magazine. I surfed this spot a lot this winter. It looks pretty but the pesticides runoff was so bad that it burned my eyes.
Fill dirt seems to be a real problem for Pattinson considering the drama on Sheridan.
Pattinson is reaching for another long stretch of logic on this river dirt/sand deal. Sorry buddy, nice try though. And thanks for laughs. If you are finding yourself with too much dirt why don't you build some kids some baseball fields or something?
Psychologists would call Pattinson's latest column "whiny little girl syndrome".
*I did a search on "pattinson" on the North County Times website and found his previous letters plus rebuttal letters from the public. It's a riot.
link
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Our Cliffs Are Dry, So They Fall
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Here is a Union Tribune story about dredging offshore sand and dumping it on the beach to help prevent the cliffs falling, a better solution than seawalls.
The offshore sand will be the good stuff, not the horrible river sand the city of Encinitas used to import in the 80's and it won't be dirt (see post below).
There is one thing I never hear anyone in charge talking about, the cliffs are no longer drippy.
What? Drippy you say?
When I was a kid the cliffs were wet, damp and dripping. Ever build a sandcastle at the beach? You use the damp wet sand to build it because it sticks and stays up. The dry sand crumbles. The physics of sandcastles.
Think also, concrete. What do we mix with concrete to make it strong? Water!
It is the same with our cliffs. When I kid the dripping bluffs were covered in blooming flowers and red ripe wild tomatoes. Yes, there were slides from time to time but the bluffs seemed much more solid then than now.
My guess is that the cliffs no longer drip because we have paved over so much of North County that the rain no longer soaks into the soil and gradually makes its way west via percolation and osmosis.
Now the rain rushes down the roads (through downtown Leucadia) and into the ocean. This run off may keep costing you an extra 5 bucks by the way (on top of the $110,000 we collectively put up as taxpayers. Our city looooves it's consultants!) link
Anyone that has lived here for more than 30 years can confirm that the area bluffs were drippy, not dry like today.
What can we do? Probably nothing at this point. It's only getting worse as the sprawling San Elijo Hill's continues to build out. So if you own a multi-million dollar home on Neptune Ave. shake your angry fist east towards your new neighbors.
Dredging offshore and dumping sand will help the cliffs but probably destroy the quality of the surf for a few weeks.
I humbly request that the city do the dredging in June when the weather and surf is horrible anyway. Please do not do it in the fall when the surf is good.
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